We realized that light isn't the ONLY thing getting the cups to warm up over time.  Heat must play a role, too, since cups in the darkness increased in temperature.  The air temperature inside the cabinets (where we placed our cups in darkness) was definitely warmer than the liquid inside the cups.

We wanted to set up various conditions with both warm and cold liquids, and differing temperatures around the cups.  We thought about how we could change the temperatures around the cups consistently...

Since blankets can't be a heat source, we couldn't use them.

Since a hair dryer wouldn't create a consistent temperature around the cups, that was out of the question, too.

We don't have a fridge in our classroom, so that would be a pain running down the hall to Ms. Trainer's room.

But we do have access to hot and cold water, so we decided to stick cups of different temperatures within closed containers of different temperatures of water.  We agreed to control the amount of water within each setup, along with the time we ran the investigations!

Our data is telling some interesting stories and there seems to be some general patterns, some patterns in the final temperatures, and some patterns when there's a BIG difference between the starting temperatures.  

With all of our data from our temperature changing/light investigations, we came to the following conclusions in our scientist circle:

1.  Light affects every cup's temperature by increasing it.  Light that is transmitted or absorbed makes the greatest impact, and we saw the largest temperature changes then.

2.   Different cups seem to respond to light differently.  Clear cups had the most light transmitted. Black cups had the most light absorbed. 

3.  Light plays a role in warming up cold liquids, but there's something else that warms up light, too, when light isn't present.  We're thinking the hot air (or hotter air than the temperature of the liquids in the cups) plays a role.  We're thinking we need to do some investigations with heat to help us better understand this!

We built out models to show what light does with each cup's surface, quantifying them in a mathematical model to show light being reflected, transmitted or absorbed on different surfaces.  Stay tuned for our thoughts on heat-related investigations!

Early in the school year, our initial model of how the fancy cups worked better than the regular cup showed that we thought incoming light had to do with heating up the liquid inside that was attempting to stay cold.  So Mrs. Brinza dug around the supply closet and luckily came up with some light sensors and lights to help us figure out how to see if light was affecting the cups!

We did two things!  First, we measured the water temperature's change when exposed to light. We wanted to test various cups since we've had some questions about materials of the cups, too!

Then we used a light sensor/meter to measure the amount of light going towards, into, and off of our cups (we're talking more like scientists now and are suggesting that light can transmit, reflect, or absorb differently off of different cups).  

And the data we've collected is telling us some REALLY interesting things that we'll be trying to make sense of next week. The really neat thing, too, is that we're using a ton of math in science right now.  Our ability to manipulate numbers and use our number sense to eliminate outliers is outstanding!  Way to go 6th grade!

We've had some time off of school and are jumping right back in!

We've figured out the mass of a closed-cup system does not change.  The fact that it's closed doesn't allow any molecules to enter or exit the system.  If it did, the mass would change, which it hasn't.

BUT...our temperatures have changed.  How does the temperature of a close-cup system change???

We had some ideas that centered around two things: light and heat/cold. So we developed some initial models to explain our thinking.  Here are some examples of students' ideas:

We sat in a scientist circle and shared our thinking, much of which involved the light going through the cup and changing the temperature of the cold water to be warmer.  We think the same thing is going on with heat, which starts on the outside and ventures its way in.  This means that the cup gets light or heat, and that light or heat hits the walls which then hits the water molecules near the walls, changing from cold to warm.

We came to consensus on how we think this happens:

This left us with some questions...

Like how does the cup's surface affect the light and heat that can transfer through the cup?  Does any of the light or heat not make it into the cup and go elsewhere?  How do these things affect the function of a cup that's meant to keep a drink either hot or cold?  How can we gather evidence to see what the light and heat actually do to the temperature of the liquid in the cup?

​Boy, are we thinking deeply here in the 6th grade!!!